Well folks, I am on the road again. I have actually been on my mid-year trip for 11 days already but things have been happening so fast that I have not had time to post daily blogs like I have in the past. There is going to be a different approach to the blogs this time. First, they will not be daily. All the normal weird things that happen to me now happen so regularly that they are not worth mentioning. So I will not bore you with repeating the insanity. I will post notes about special events, with a focus on food (how could I do anything different?), and occasional unique events that occur. For this first blog I will be telling you about my entire stay in Singapore rather than doing a separate mailing for each day.
The second thing that will be different is that I will be posting (and already have posted) pictures to my Facebook account as I find things to show you. I am registered as DFlewellen@gmail.com so you should be able to find me and send me a friend request. I will accept them all and I make my pictures visible to everyone anyway. So I hope you can find them. If I find that this doesn’t work well enough, I will post them on Virtual Tourist, where I also have an account. Their interface is a bit difficult and most people I know are on Facebook, so that is where I will start.
Anyway, the standard rules apply. If you find these emails boring please feel free to discard them. If they are annoying, please let me know and I will drop your name of the distribution. You will still be my friend whether you get these or not. And I welcome any feedback about the content, except when you tell me I need to quit being such a dirty old man. No way that will happen. So let’s begin with my visit to trip to Singapore….
Day 1 - Houston (Jul 3)
Our flight is in two legs, Houston to Tokyo and Tokyo to Singapore. Nothing happens on the Houston to Tokyo leg except a lot of food and sleep. Arriving in Tokyo we have a problem. I am travelling with my coworker, Kimberley Rayer. Kimberley has had a disagreement with her food and we start hunting for some Pepto Bismol. This is not a phrase/word that translates into Japanese. There is no universal sign for it (other than those we won't use no matter what). She finds a convenience shop and has a protracted discussion with the clerk. When she finishes her purchase she tells me that no one could identify our special pink liquid or tablet by any name. So they sold her something else. When we get to the Northwest Club lounge we ask the receptionist about the medication. She explains it is great for diarrhea, toothaches, and dental carries!?!?. So it fixes a person at both ends. Then she notes that it smells terrible. I take a whiff of it and completely agree. And on top of that they are black capsules. Looks more fit for a captured KGB spy than a medicine for a tourist.
Our next leg is on a Northwest Airlines A330-200. These have the pod seats like those Roy and I had on our first overseas flight. I was the first in line to board with Kimberley right behind me. As I enter the jet way, a very polite Japanese lady asks me to step aside from the line. It is for a random security check. She then proceeded to take most of my clothes off, unpack every pocket of my backpack, power up every device I was carrying (laptop, camera, phone, Bluetooth ear phone, Bose headset, voice recorder, iPod, Wi-Fi finder, and the battery charger for ear phone). She had me remove my shoes which she then proceeded to examine inside and out, examine the soles and heels, squeeze the leather uppers, finishing with sticking her hands down into the toes of the shoes. She went through all my pockets of my pants, shirt, and jacket. She then examine my belt and buckle in fine detail. This woman was so polite I couldn't get upset. The security guards in Baku should take a lesson from her. I felt like I had been violated in a sleazy porn film.
The plane was nearly empty, apparently due to the fact that it was an American national holiday (why would that matter in Japan), and because school had resumed in Singapore, so vacation travel loads were over. We had a quiet flight with the exception of Kimberley having to simply curl up and feign death while she recuperated from her illness.
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